Session Details

Time Workshop Schedule
Additional time slots will be opened (offering some workshops twice) if registration warrants it
Monday
1:30 pm – 3:00 pm
CHAIR STREAM

Resilience:
What’s Keeping You Up at Night?

Facilitator: Riley Burton

Join us for roundtable discussions on issues of common concern to managers in the college system, and learn how others are dealing with similar issues.  The session will be an opportunity to share the challenges you are facing, identify commonalities and brainstorm solutions.

BEST PRACTICE/EMERGING ISSUES/TRENDS

Resilience

Stress: How to deal with it?

Speaker: Dr. Rostyslav Shemechko

This Presentation will be useful for pelple who deal with the following situations on daily basis:

  • Emotional distress
  • Psychological discomfort
  • Stress at work
  • Extreme anxiety

The session will explain stress and its consequences, structure of stress and how to deal with stress

BEST PRACTICE/EMERGING ISSUES/TRENDS

Indigenous Education – IPEC Panel

Acknowledging Indigenous Student Experiences, Data, and the Path Ahead

Indigenous student needs are complex, holistic, and diverse. This presentation will acknowledge current Indigenous student experiences within Ontario’s college system, and identify a number of options for creating respectful, reflexive and reciprocal relationships with Indigenous students and community. Discussion will also focus on the creation of Indigenous student initiatives that have a direct impact on student outcomes.

Tuesday
9:00 am – 10:30 am
CHAIR STREAM

Reinvent:
Leading Change: The Multifaceted Role of Chair

Presenter: Jessica Bugorski, Fanshawe College

“The job of chairing a department is probably the most important, least appreciated, and toughest administrative position in higher education.” (Buller, 2012, p. 3).

Change occurring in the Ontario college system is re-defining the role of the Associate Dean/Chair, led primarily by the proliferation of degrees, and to a lesser extent, the heightened importance placed on research, expansion of flexible delivery, increases in international students, and effects of the Strategic Mandate Agreements. These changes are exacerbated by budget constraints/reduced funding and all contribute to an ever increasing workload for the Ontario college Associate Dean/Chair. Learn and discuss data gathered from you and your colleagues that gives us all a deeper understanding of the role and responsibilities of the Ontario college Associate Dean/Chair.

Navigating Your Career

PANEL: Kristi Harrison, Ella Forbes-Chilibeck, Nevzat Gurmen

Facilitator: Diane Posterski

Join this expert panel to gain a better understanding about navigating your career, generally, and in the college system. Panelists will share their journeys, including opportunities for success, growth strategies and how they now hire, lead and mentor those around them. You will also gain special insight from legal counsel who has advised and coached dozens of professionals, including  college administrators, through their careers. Know the leadership competencies needed, recognize the challenges/barriers to upward and lateral mobility at your college, and consider tangible strategies to acquire and demonstrate those leadership competencies.

BEST PRACTICE/EMERGING ISSUES/TRENDS

Artificial Intelligence

The Future of Work and Learning with a Focus on AI
 
Speaker: Dr. Deepak Gupta/ Dr. Ilia Nika
This interactive workshop will provide attendees with an overview of artificial intelligence (AI) and how that is transforming future of work and learning. The attendees will gain an overview of AI, including machine learning. They will learn about machine learning fundamentals, including key concepts such as supervised and unsupervised techniques. They will learn about latest cloud-based platforms enabling AI. Finally, they will learn about implications for work and learning, and how they could prepare for this future.
Tuesday
10:45 am – 12:00 pm
CHAIR STREAM
Renew:
Maximizing Faculty Performance
Facilitator:
Mary Devine, Chair, The Business School, Centennial College
This session will explore the ways that we can support faculty to be innovative and achieve high standards of student service, and will provide you with strategies for helping faculty to stay ‘on track’ with department goals. Engaging and motivating part-time faculty will also be covered in the workshop.  Connect with fellow chairs to share and be inspired by the practice of other chairs as they strive maximize faculty performance.
LEADERSHIP

Resilience
Get a Grip!! Strategic Planning for more resilience

Speaker: Dr. Dominque Giguere

Do you have a firm hold on the things that will give you the resilience you need during tough times at work? This workshop explores how to identify or develop the anchors that will keep you on the path to success during turbulent times. We will connect the dots between strategic planning, operational planning, change management and resilience. We will take a practical look at the tools already at your disposal or add to your tool box so you and your team can withstand stormy weather. After all, when things get tough we need to hold on and get a good grip. But we also need to make sure we are holding on to the right things.

BEST PRACTICE/EMERGING ISSUES/TRENDS

How OCAS deals with the pace of technological change

Speaker: Jeff  Glassford, Mike Williamson, OCAS

The world is being dramatically reshaped by technology-led innovators who are rapidly disrupting well-established industries…and even themselves. From entertainment (Netflix) to financial services (Bitcoin) and taxis (Uber) to hotels (Airbnb), the effects of technological change can be observed all around us and organizations must adapt to a new paradigm in order to remain relevant and competitive in the face of uncertainty. Education is no exception, with the business of higher education and the technology of higher education now functioning as one thing, cross-discipline thinking is the new name of the game.  Join us for a discussion on how OCAS is adapting to the changing landscape and dealing with the accelerating pace of technological change.

Tuesday
2:15 pm – 4:15 pm
CHAIR STREAM
Challenges & Opportunities for New Chairs

Panelists: 

Michelle Grimes, Chair, School of Business, Conestoga College

Greg Yantz, Chair, Woodstock/Oxford Region Campus, Fanshawe College

Facilitator:

Dr. Dianne McCauley, Chair of Nursing at Centennial College
 
This session will be an interactive discussion about creating strategies for success in your first few years as Chair.  It will include a panel discussion with experienced and new chairs, and will explore the challenges and opportunities that come with the job.  The goal is to build the tool kits for everyone in the role of chair to maximize success.
Renew

Sex, Drugs and Rock & Role

Don’t get caught under a rock in your role when dealing with cannabis and #MeToo in the workplace.

Speaker: Ella Forbes-Chilibeck

With the #Metoo movement and the changes to the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act intended to strengthen the protections regarding harassment and violence in the workplace, we are seeing a greater obligation on the employer regarding implementation and enforcement of policies as well as a more interventionist approach to workplace investigations.  What are best practices with respect to harassment complaints in the workplace? As an administrator, what is your role and how can you best protect your students, your staff and yourself?   What will be the impact of the legalization of Cannabis in Ontario, in the colleges and in the workplace generally?  How do these two significant cultural changes affect your role and responsibilities within the College sector? Ella will review the current state of the law and legislation with a focus on best practices and evolving approaches we are seeing in the courts and tribunals  – what do you need in order to best ensure you have role clarity with respect to these changing obligations and entitlements.

LEADERSHIP

Working in a Unionized Environment

Speaker: Jed DeCory

Know yourself. Know your team. Know the contracts.

Successfully managing a team in a unionized environment means combining sound leadership practices with a solid technical knowledge of the collective agreements.

Using examples, the session will look at how the intersection of these two competencies works to help you avoid the adversarial aspects of a unionized environment. By demonstrating awareness of self, your team and the contracts, it is possible to utilize and see the collective agreements as a useful tool rather than a constraining framework.